A yearslong impasse between the City of Milwaukee and the union for its rank-and-file police officers has tentatively ended.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the Milwaukee Police Association announced on Oct. 21 that they reached a tentative, voluntary deal on a new contract amid arbitration. It comes as the city’s officers have been working on an expired deal for more than three years — and as the union grew increasingly public in its criticisms of negotiations in recent months.
“A tentative, voluntary agreement has been reached between the Milwaukee Police Association and the City of Milwaukee regarding the outstanding labor agreement,” said an email from Jeff Fleming, Johnson’s spokesperson. “The new contract would cover a majority of the Milwaukee Police Department’s law enforcement officers.”
The terms of the agreement were not yet available and are subject to approval by the police union’s members and members of the Common Council, the email says. If finalized, it would end the labor arbitration process that began in September.
“Obviously we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” Alex Ayala, the president of the police union, told the Journal Sentinel. “We’re not singing victory yet, but I think it would be a good compromise from what we were asking and what the city realized what we should be getting.”
Ayala declined to provide details of the contract agreement, citing the need for council members and union members to ratify it.
The two parties have been locked in negotiations since the last agreement expired at the end of 2022.
Documents previously obtained by the Journal Sentinel showed the union called for a 12.5% raise across the three years, while the city asked for a 5% raise on 2023 salaries with no back pay and 2% raises the next years, with back pay. It remains to be seen where the ultimate figures land under a new contract.
The current salary range for a Milwaukee police officer is between $63,534.75 and $84,743.87, with annual pay raises in the first five years, according to the city of Milwaukee website.
The city and union had been negotiating a new three-year contract, and if that holds, the contract would expire at the end of 2025.
The negotiation on the contract had become drawn out for the city and union, but early on it was amicable. The two mutually agreed to pause negotiations as they worked on 2023 Wisconsin Act 12, a state funding law that mandated Milwaukee expand its police force while allowing the city to raise more revenue.
In the years that followed, the city lost its labor negotiator and, later, the assistant city attorney who worked on the negotiations. That led the city to hire outside legal counsel for $50,000, which was approved by Johnson in August.
The agreement also brings to an end a negotiation process that had grown heated this year. Ayala had publicly criticized the city in recent months, after years of saying little publicly on the process.
A union statement in July called the city’s proposal “insulting,” and it held a protest at City Hall in September. The latter was met with anti-police protesters, who criticized police spending by the city.
The negotiations also put pressure on the city’s police department to speak out. Following the union’s July statement, Police Chief Jeffrey Norman weighed in publicly and called for “just compensation” for his officers.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee, police union contract stalemate ends with tentative contract agreement
Reporting by David Clarey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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